333 


PRICE,  15  CENTS. 


DID  THE 


LOUISIANA  PUECHASE 


/ 

EXTEND   TO   THE 


PACIFIC    OCEAN? 


AND 

< 


OUR  TITLE   TO   OREGON. 


JOHN   J.   ANDERSON,   PH.  D. 


YORK  : 
CLARK  ct  MAYNARD,  PUBLISHERS, 


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-- 


& 


DID    THE    LOUISIANA    PURCHASE    EXTEND 
TO    THE    PACIFIC    OCEAN? 


BY  JOHN  J.  ANDERSON,   PH.   D. 


THE  Ninth  Census  Report  of  the  United  States,  being  for  the  year  1870, 
contains  a  map  which  represents  the  Province  of  Louisiana,  commonly  known 
as  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  acquired  from  France  in  1803,  as  stretching  from 
the  Mississippi  river  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  Up  to  the  appearance  of  that  report 
it  was  generally  understood  and  believed  that  the  territory  in  question  extended 
no  farther  west  than  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Every  author  of  note,  so  far  as  is 
within  the  writer's  knowledge,  who  has  expressed  any  opinion  on  the  subject, 
has  so  declared;  but  since  the  advent  of  the  report,  several  compilers  of 
school  histories,  adopting  the  verdict  of  the  map  and  thus  without  making  any 
investigations  for  themselves,  have  asserted  in  their  books  that  the  Purchase 
extended  to  the  Pacific.  One  compiler,  while  adhering  to  his  former  state- 
ment, that  "What  is  now  the  State  of  Louisiana  was  but  a  little  part  of  the 
vast  territory  which  then  bore  that  name,  for  this  territory  extended  from  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,"  has  inserted  in  his  book  an  exact  copy  of 
the  census  map  referred  to,  without  correcting  any  of  its  errors,  one  of  which 
includes  Texas  as  a  part  of  the  cession  made  to  the  United  States  in  1848.  Need 
he  be  told  that  Texas  was  annexed  to  the  United  States  in  1845,  and  was  imme- 
diately after  represented  in  our  Congress  at  Washington  ?  There  are  other  im- 
portant errors  in  that  map,  notably  one  in  respect  to  the  original  territorial  limits 
of  Kentucky.*  It  is  thus  seen  that  while  some  instructors  are  teaching  that  the 
western  limits  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  did  not  extend  beyond  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  others  hold  that  they  did  not  stop  short  of  the  Pacific  coast. 
Whom  are  we  to  believe  ?  As  both  sides  cannot  be  correct,  and  the  subjectis  one 
of  acknowledged  importance,  we  will  make  a  brief  investigation  into  the  facts. 

In  the  year  1682,  the  French  explorer  La  Salle  descended  the  Mississippi 
river  to  its  moudi,  taking  formal  possession  of  the  country  in  the  name  of  his 
king,  Louis  XIV.  The  Spaniards,  under  De  Soto,  had  previously  discovered 
the  Mississippi  and  wandered  over  a  large  part  of  its  valley,  but  neither  De 
Soto's  party  nor  any  of  his  countrymen  ever  followed  up  the  advantage  thus 
gained  by  making  a  settlement  within  the  territory,  and  consequently,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  nations,  Spain  failed  to  reap  the  fruits  of  De  Soto's  success. 
The  French  were  more  active.  In  this  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi  they 
planted  settlements  and  established  missionary  stations  and  military  posts, 

*  The  writer  addressed  a  note  to  General  F.  A.  Walker,  Superintendent  of  the  Census,  asking; 
him  for  the  information  that  induced  him  in  his  report  to  include  the  Oregon  region  in  the  Louis- 
iana Purchase.  The  general,  in  his  reply,  says:  "  My  reason  for  embracing  Oregon  in  the  terri- 
tory covered  by  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  for  the  purposes  of  the  map  printed  in  connection  with  the 
reports  of  the  Ninth  Census,  or,  rather,  for  allowing  the  map  which  Col.  Stocking  had  prepared, 
to  go  into  the  work  without  correction  in  this  particular,  was,  that  the  United  States  government, 
as  I  recall  the  negotiations,  had  made  claim  to  Oregon  by  virtue  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase."  In 
another  communication,  addressed  to  a  prominent  western  educator,  respecting  the  western  limits 
assigned  in  the  map  to  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  the  general  goes  further,  saying:  ik  I  am  free  to 
confess  that  my  individual  views  do  not  coincide  therewith" 

\ 


The  Louisiana  Purchase. 


and  thus  became  the  rightful  owners  of  the  entire  region.  ,  If  Spain  at  that 
time  could  lay  any  claim  whatever  to  the  region,  that  claim  was  surrendered  to 
France  in  due  time,  as  we  shall  see.  Already  we  come  to  the  important  ques- 
tion upon  which  hinges  the  solution  of  the  whole  matter.  What  was  the  extent 
of  the  territory  not  merely  occupied  but  claimed  by  the  French  ?  Parkman,  in 
his  "  Discovery  of  the  Great  West,"  a  work  evincing  extensive  and  patient 
research,  says  (p.  284) :  "The  Louisiana  of  to-day  is  but  a  single  State  of  the 
American  Republic.  The  Louisiana  of  La  Salle  stretched  from  the  Alleghanies 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  from  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Gulf  to  the  farthest 
springs  of  the  Missouri."  Greenhow,  in  his  "  History  of  Oregon  and  Califor- 
nia" (p.  283),  makes  a  like  declaration,  and  so  do  all  the  other  writers  who  have 
given  special  investigation  to  the  subject. 

The  French  remained  in  possession  of  Louisiana  till  1762.  In  November  of 
that  year,  preliminaries  of  peace  were  agreed  to  at  Paris,  between  France  and 
Spain  on  the  one  side,  and  England  and  Portugal  on  the  other,  and,  by  the 
treaties  directly  afterward  made,  France  ceded  to  Spain  "all  the  country  known 
under  the  name  of  Louisiana,  as  also  New  Orleans  and  the  island  on  which 
that  city  is  situated,"  and  Great  Britain,  a  little  more  than  two  months  later, 
"  received  possession  of  Canada,  Florida,  and  the  portion  of  Louisiana  east  of 
the  line  drawn  along  the  middle  of  the  Iberville  river  to  the  sea."  Spain  thus 
came  in  quiet  possession  of  all  the  region  of  Louisiana  west  of  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Iberville.  (The  Iberville  is  an  eastern  outlet  of  the  Mississippi,  about 
fourteen  miles  south  of  Baton  Rouge.)  The  fact  that  arrests  our  attention  at 
this  stage  of  the  investigation  is  that  while  the  treaties  made  at  Paris  gave 
Louisiana  a  definite  boundary  on  the  east,  nothing  was  said  of  a  western 
boundary.  Why  was  this  omission  ?  Greenhow  (p.  279)  offers  a  partial  expla- 
nation in  these  words :  "  With  regard  to  the  western  limits  of  Louisiana,  no 
settlement  of  boundaries  was  necessary,  as  the  territory  thus  acquired  by  Spain 
would  join  other  territory  of  which  she  also  claimed  possession."  The  western 
part  of  Louisiana,  it  will  be  noted,  joined  other  territory :  it  did  not  extend  to 
the  Pacific. 

During  the  next  thirty-eight  years  Spain  was  in  possession  of  Louisiana. 
In  the  year  1800,  an  exchange  of  territories  was  effected,  Spain,  in  order  to 
enlarge  the  dominions  of  one  of  her  royal  princes,  transferring  to  France  the 
Province  of  Louisiana  in  exchange  for  certain  lands  in  Italy.  The  language  of  the 
transfer  is  an  important  factor  in  this  investigation.  "  His  Catholic  majesty," 
so  says  the  transfer,  "  engages  to  retrocedeto  the  French  Republic,  the  Province 
of  Louisiana,  with  the  same  extent  which  it  now  has  in  the  hands  of  Spain, 
and  which  it  had  when  France  possessed  it,  and  such  as  it  should  be,  according 
to  the  treaties  subsequently  made  between  Spain  and  other  states."  Was  lan- 
guage ever  more  explicit  ?  This  does  not  look  like  giving  to  Louisiana  the 
Pacific  ocean  for  its  western  boundary.  "  Certainly,"  as  has  been  aptly  remarked, 
"  no  treaties  entered  into  by  Spain  could  enlarge  the  extent  of  Louisiana.  Cer- 
tainly Spain  never  relinquished  more  than  she  received." 

We  now  come  to  the  acquisition  of  the  Louisiana  territory  by  the  United 
States.  This  was  accomplished,  we  all  know,  during  Jefferson's  administra- 
tion. It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  Jefferson  had  no  thought  of  securing  for 
the  United  States  more  territory  than  enough  to  give  us  the  free  navigation  of 
the  Mississippi  river.  In  his  letter  of  Feb.  i,  1803,10  Mr.  Dupont,  he  save  : 
"The  country  which  we  wish  to  purchase  is  a  barren  sand,  six  hundred  miles 
from  east  to  west,  and  from  thirty  to  forty  and  fifty  miles  from  north  to  south." 


The  Louisiana  Purchase. 


Such  being  the  case,  Napoleon's  proposition  to  sell  the  whole  Province  of 
Louisiana  produced,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  a  great  surprise  to  the  American 
negotiators  in  Paris,  for  they  had  only  made  efforts  to  procure  a  "cession  of 
New  Orleans  and  the  Floridas."  Transcending  their  authority,  they  accepted 
the  offer,  and  the  purchase  was  effected  on  the  3oth  of  April,  1803.  Now,  the 
vital  question  just  here  is,  What  did  we  buy?  How  large  was  the  purchase? 
The  treaty,  or,  as  we  may  call  it,  the  bill  of  sale,  itself,  will  best  answer  the  ques- 
tion. After  reciting  the  third  article  of  the  treaty  of  1800,  the  territory  thus 
retroceded  to  France  was,  says  the  bill  of  sale,  "ceded  to  the  United  States,  in 
the  name  of  the  French  Republic,  as  fully  and  in  the  same  manner  as  it  had 
been  acquired  by  the  French  Republic,  in  virtue  of  the  above-mentioned  treaty 
with  his  Catholic  majesty."  This,  and  nothing  more.  "No  other  description 
of  boundaries,"  says  Greenhow,  "could  ever  be  obtained  from  the  French  gov- 
ernment." It  was  distinctly  asserted  by  Marbois,  the  negotiator  of  the  treaty 
on  the  part  of  Napoleon,  that  the  French  never  owned  any  part  of  North 
America  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  is  plain  that  "  France  could  not  sell 
to  the  United  States  in  1803  more  than  she  recovered  from  Spain  in  1800."  In 
our  negotiations  with  Spain,  commenced  at  Madrid  in  1804,  for  the  adjustment 
of  the  lines  which  were  to  separate  the  territories  of  the  two  governments, 
Spain  contended  "that  the  Louisiana  ceded  to  Spain  by  France  in  1762,  and 
retroceded  to  France  in  1800,  and  transferred  by  the  latter  power  to  the  United 
States  in  1803,  could  not,  in  justice,  be  considered  as  comprising  more  than 
New  Orleans,  with  the  tract  in  its  vicinity  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  coun- 
try immediately  bordering  on  the  west  bank  of  that  river"  (Greenhow,  p.  280) ; 
and  in  1818,  up  to  the  close  of  the  long-pending  negotiations,  now  conducted 
at  Washington,  Don  Onis,  the  Spanish  minister,  firmly  reiterated  this  declara- 
tion (Hildreth,  vol.  VI.,  p.  647).  On  the  I2th  of  March,  1844,  Mr.  A.  V.  Brown, 
from  the  "  Committee  on  the  Territories,"  made  a  report  in  Congress,  covering 
twenty-four  closely-printed  pages,  in  which  this  whole  question  is  thoroughly 
discussed.  In  all  this  long  report  there  is  not  the  first  attempt  to  prove  that 
our  right  to  Oregon  came  to  us  through  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  Witness  the 
language  of  the  report :  "'  The  Louisiana  treaty  cedes  to  the  United  States  the 
Province  of  Louisiana,  with  the  same  extent  it  had  in  the  hands  of  Spain  in 
1800,  and  that  it  had  when  previously  possessed  by  France.  This  description 
is  loose,  but  Napoleon  chose  to  execute  a  quit-claim  rather  than  a  warranty 
of  boundaries."  But  why  did  Napoleon  so  choose?  Why  did  he  not  give  us  a 
deed  of  the  territory  to  the  Pacific  ?  For  the  best  of  all  reasons.  He  did  not 
own,  nor  had  he  ever  owned,  that  extent  of  territory.  He  sold  us  just  what  he 
had — nothing  more.  He  wanted  the  money,  for  just  at  that  moment  he  was 
going  to  war  with  England ;  and  we,  when  the  unexpected  opportunity  came, 
discovered  that  we  wanted  the  land  he  could  sell — every  inch  of  it. 

In  support  of  the  conclusion  we  have  reached  witness  the  following  testi- 
mony : 

"The  western  boundary  of  Louisiana  is,  rightfully,  the  Rio  Bravo,  from  its 
mouth  to  its  source,  and  thence  along  the  highlands  and  mountains  dividing 
the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  from  those  of  the  Pacific.  On  the  waters  oi 
the  Pacific  we  can  found  no  claim  in  right  of  Louisiana." — Jefferson  to  John 
Melish,  Map- publisher,  of  Philadelphia,  Dec.  31,  1816. 

"We  are  forced  to  regard  the  boundaries  indicated  by  nature — namely,  the 
highlands  separating  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  from  those  flowing  into  the 
Pacific  or  the  California  Gulf — as  the  true  western  boundaries  of  the  Louis- 


Our    Title  to  Oregon. 


iana  ceded  by  France  to  Spain  in  1762,  and  retroceded  to  France  in  1800, 
and  transferred  to  the  United  States  by  France  in  1803."— Robert  Greenhow. 

"We  find  Louisiana  supported  on  the  west  border,  as  if  by  a  buttress,  by  the 
great  chain  of  mountains  that  give  source  to  the  Missouri  and  Columbia 
rivers." —  William  Darby. 

"  The  shores  of  the  western  ocean  were  certainly  not  included  in  the  cession" 
of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States.— J/.  Marbois. 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  no  part  of  the  territory  west  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  came  to  us  by  reason  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  in  1803, 
in  this  conclusion  all  the  best  authorities — Spanish,  French,  and  American — 
agreeing.  It  need  not  be  added  that  the  English  took  the  same  view  of  the 
subject. 

Our  Title  to  Oregon. 

If,  then,  the  region  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  now  covered  by  the  State 
of  Oregon  and  the  territories  of  Washington  and  Idaho  did  not  come  to  us  as 
a  part  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  in  what  way  did  it  come?  Let  us  see. 

It  is  certain  that  Spanish  navigators  were  the  first  to  reach  the  western 
coast  of  North  America.  Their  explorations,  begun  by  Cortez  and  under  his 
direction,  were  continued  by  Cabrillo  (in  1542),  who  examined  the  coast  as  far  as 
the  northern  limits  of  San  Francisco  Bay.  The  death  of  Cabrillo  occurring  while 
he  was  engaged  in  this  enterprise,  his  pilot,  Ferrelo,  prosecuted  the  undertaking, 
reaching  the  point  as  far,  probably,  as  the  forty-third  degree  of  latitude  (1543). 
Soon  Spanish  galleons  crossed  the  Pacific  from  Mexico  to  the  Philippine  Islands 
and  China,  and  returning,  were  compelled,  by  reason  of  the  easterly  or  trade  winds 
in  the  lower  latitude,  to  take  a  northward  course.  In  consequence,  they  often 
struck  the  North  American  coast  far  to  the  north  of  Mexico,  in  one  case,  it  is 
asserted,  beyond  the  fifty-seventh  degree. 

Up  to  1575  no  English  vessel  had  been  in  the  Pacific.  In  that  year  a  party 
of  English  freebooters  commanded  by  John  Oxenham,  crossed  the  Isthmus  of 
Darien,  built  a  small  vessel,  launched  it  on  the  Pacific,  and  for  several  months 
pursued  a  career  of  piracy,  Spanish  vessels,  of  course,  being  the  victims.  At 
length  they  were  captured,  and,  with  few  exceptions,  hung.  Three  years  later 
<their  fate  was  avenged  by  the  "splendid  pirate,"  as  Bancroft  calls  him,  Francis 
Drake.  Entering  the  Pacific  by  way  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  Drake  plun- 
dered the  Spanish  settlements  on  the  west  coast  of  America,  captured,  pillaged, 
and  destroyed  Spanish  vessels;  and  then,  surmising  that  the  people  whom  he 
had  so  cruelly  treated  were  making  preparations  to  intercept  him  on  his  return, 
resolved  to  make  an  attempt  to  reach  England  by  sailing  across  the  Pacific  and 
around  the  northern  part  of  Asia  and  Europe.  After  proceeding  in  a  north- 

[NoTE. — The  third  extract  given  above  is  from  the  second  edition  of  Darby's  Geographical 
Description  of  Louisiana,  360  pages,  published  in  New  York  in  1817;  a  work  commended  in  the 
highest  terms  by  Wm.  C.  C.  Clairborne,  Andrew  Jackson,  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  others,  as 
appears  by  their  letters  published  with  the  book.  Mr.  Greenhow's  volume  is  an  official  work  of 
492  pages.  It  was  prepared  under  the  sanction  of  the  government,  and  "  was  published  by  author- 
ity of  the  United  States  Senate."  Is  there  any  map  or  document  of  higher  authority?  It  was 
Secretary  Buchanan's  reliance  in  his  negotiations  with  Pakenham,  the  British  envoy,  and  stands 
to-day  the  most  complete  and  trustworthy  exposition  of  the  Oregon  Question.  The  fourth  extract 
is  from  the  History  of  Louisiana,  by  Marbois,  Napoleon's  Minister  of  the  Treasury,  by  whom  the 
negotiations  were  conducted,  in  1803,  on  the  part  of  the  French,  for  the  sale  of  Louisiana  to  the 
United  States.  The  book  was  published  in  1829,  and,  as  is  readily  seen,  its  statements  are 
deserving  of  the  Irghest  credit.] 


Our    Title  to   Oregon,  5 

westerly  direction  for  several  weeks,  and  encountering  cold  and  violent  rains,  he 
put  back  to  the  American  coast.  Abandoning  the  attempt  northward,  from 
San  Francisco  Bay  or  the  Bay  of  Bodega — it  is  not  certain  which — he  made 
his  second  and,  as  it  proved,  successful  departure.  What  extent  of  coast 
Drake  saw  is  not  known.  He  never  made  any  report,  either  by  journal  or 
other  writing;  but  it  is  certain  that  what  he  did  see  had  been  previously  seen  by 
the  Spaniards.  *««••*  UWM** 

For  a  period  of  nearly  two  hundred  years,  if  we  except  a  voyage  made  by 
Vizcaino  in  1603,  under  instructions  from  King  Philip  II.,  of  Spain,  no  attempts 
were  made  to  explore  any  part  of  the  north-western  coast  of  North  America. 
Vizcaino's  explorations  extended  to  the  forty-third  parallel  of  latitude;  and  till 
1774  nothing  was  known  with  certainty  of  any  part  of  the  coast  further  north 
as  far  as  Alaska.  Then,  by  direction  of  the  Spanish  king,  four  exploring 
voyages  were  sent  in  quick  succession  from  Mexico,  and  the  coast  as  far  north 
as  the  fifty-sixth  degree  of  latitude  was  carefully  examined  (1774-1779).  Up  to 
this  time  and  until  1790,  Spain's  claims  to  the  western  side  of  America  as  far 
north  as  Alaska  had  at  no  time  been  called  into  question.  Important  explora- 
tions, however,  had  been  made  on  the  extreme  north-western  part  of  the  conti- 
nent on  behalf  of  the  Russians.  Behring's  Straits  had  been  entered  by  the 
darinj  navigator  whose  name  it  still  bears,  and  between  1741  and  1770  the 
whole  of  the  Alaska  coast,  down  to  its  southernmost  point,  was  explored. 

We  have  noticed  the  voyage  made  by  Francis  Drake  (1577-1580).  No  fur- 
ther explorations  were  made  by  the  English  in  the  North  Pacific  for  a  period 
of  about  two  hundred  years.  Then  the  celebrated  Captain  Cook  appeared  upon 
the  ocean.  It  was  believed  at  that  time  that  there  existed  a  passage  connecting 
Hudson's  Bay  with  the  Pacific.  Cook's  object  was  to  find  it.  He  entered  the 
Pacific,  doubling  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  in  January  of  1778  discovered 
the  Sandwich  Islands.  Steering  eastward  he  reached  the  American  coast,  and 
traced  it  many  hundred  miles,  but  as  the  same  had  already  been  explored  by  the 
Spaniards  or  Russians,  no  credit,  on  the  ground  of  first  discovery,  could  be 
accorded  to  him.  Other  voyages  were  made  to  the  coast  by  Russians  as  well 
as  Englishmen,  their  object,  in  most  cases,  being  for  furs  ;  but  none  of  them 
were  of  any  importance  as  respects  our  present  investigations.  We  now  come 
to  the  facts  upon  which  the  government  of  our  country  based  its  claim  to  the 
Oregon  region.  By  this  term — the  Oregon  region — we  mean  all  the  domain 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  now  included  in  the  State  of  Oregon  and  the 
territories  of  Washington  and  Idaho. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1787,  the  ship  Columbia,  commanded  by  John  Kendrick, 
and  the  sloop  Washington,  commanded  by  Robert  Gray,  sailed  from  Boston. 
They  were  laden  with  an  assortment  of  "Yankee  notions,"  the  vessels  and 
cargoes  being  owned  by  a  company  of  Boston  merchants,  whose  object  was  to 
open  a  trade  for  furs  along  the  north-west  coast  of  North  America,  and  to  com- 
bine this  with  a  trade  to  China.  Both  commanders  were  provided  with  letters 
in  conformity  with  a  resolution  of  Congress,  and  also  with  friendly  letters  from 
the  Spanish  minister  in  the  United  States.  Soon  after  passing  around  Cape 
Horn,  the  two  vessels  were  separated  by  a  violent  storm,  but  succeeded  in 
joining  each  other  again  in  Nootka  Sound,  on  the  west  of  Vancouver's  Island, 
where  they  remained  till  the  spring  of  1789.  During  the  summer  of  that  year, 
while  the  Columbia  remained  at  anchor  in  the  sound,  Captain  Gray,  in  his  little 
sloop  of  less  than  a  hundred  tons,  made  several  excursions  north  and  south 
along  the  coast,  returning  with  the  furs  procured,  and  transferring  them  to  the 


Our    Title  to   Oregon. 


Columbia.  In  these  excursions  he  made  important  explorations  and  was  the 
first  navigator  to  pass  between  the  mainland  and  many  islands  off  the  coast. 
Leaving  Kendrick,  by  agreement,  Gray,  in  the  Columbia,  proceeded  to  China, 
exchanged  his  furs  for  a  cargo  of  teas,  sailed  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
and  across  the  Atlantic  to  Boston,  thus  carrying  the  American  flag  for  the  first 
time  around  the  world.  Meanwhile,  Kendrick,  in  the  Washington,  made 
further  explorations,  and  preceded  all  Europeans  in  passing  through  the  Straits 
of  Juan  de  Fuca  from  one  end  to  the  other. 

Again,  in  1791,  was  Captain  Gray,  this  time  in  command  of  the  Columbia, 
busy  exploring  the  inlets  and  passages  of  the  north-west  coast.  In  the  summer 
of  that  year  he  met  with  what  proved  to  be  a  most  important  success,  in  finding 
a  great  river.  This  river,  in  May  of  the  following  year,  he  entered,  and  for  a 
distance  of  about  twenty  miles  carefully  explored,  bestowing  upon  it  the  name 
of  his  vessel,  which  it  bears  at  the  present  day.  The  English  navigator, 
Vancouver,  had  previously  declared,  after  having  made,  as  he  supposed,  a 
minute  examination  of  the  coast,  that  there  was  no  river  in  that  part  of  North 
America.  The  discovery  of  the  Columbia  and  its  exploration  by  Gray  con- 
tribute the  first  element  in  the  United  States  title  to  the  Oregon  region.  We 
have  the  testimony  of  the  British  commander,  Mackenzie,  that  from  this  time, 
or  a  period  four  or  five  years  later,  till  1814,  the  direct  trade  between  the  north- 
west coast  of  North  America  and  China  was  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of 
the  Americans.  These  men  were  called  "  Yankee  adventurers"  by  the  British, 
for,  with  "  only  a  few  trinkets  of  little  value,"  they  would  set  out  on  their 
voyages,  would  "pick  up"  seal-skins,  furs,  sandal-wood,  sharks'  fins, and  pearls, 
and  with  these  and  a  "  handful  of  Spanish  silver  dollars,"  would  purchase  car- 
goes of  tea,  silks,  and  nankeens,  getting  home  in  two  or  three  years. 

We  now  come  to  the  second  clement  in  the  United  States  title  to  the  Oregon 
region.  In  January,  1803,  President  Jefferson  sent  a  message  to  Congress  recom<- 
mending  that  certain  western  explorations  should  be  made.  His  object,  as  made 
known  in  the  message,  had  reference  to  the  extension  of  the  trade  enterprises 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Occupation  and  settlement  were  no  doubt 
also  contemplated.  The  recommendation  having  been  approved,  an  expedition 
was  planned  and  the  command  of  it  given  to  Captain  Lewis  and  Lieutenant 
Clarke.  These  two  men  were  instructed  to  explore  the  Missouri  river  to  its 
sources,  and  then  "  to  seek  and  trace  to  its  termination  in  the  Pacific  some 
stream  which  might  offer  the  most  direct  water  communication  across  the 
continent."  Before,  however,  they  had  advanced  further  than  the  Mississippi 
river,  the  news  came  that  Napoleon  had  proposed  to  sell  the  Louisiana  terri- 
tory to  the  United  States,  and  then  that  the  sale  and  cession  had  been  made. 
As  the  western  expedition  had  been  planned  without  reference  to  the  acquisi- 
tion of  Louisiana,  its  departure  was  not  delayed  because  of  that  acquisition. 
Lewis  and  Clarke  ascended  the  Missouri,  crossed  to  the  head  waters  of  the 
Columbia,  and,  descending  that  stream  for  a  distance  of  six  hundred  miles,  in 
November  (1805)  reached  its  mouth.  This  expedition,  says  Greenhow,  "was  an 
announcement  to  the  world  of  the  intention  of  the  American  government  to 
occupy  and  settle  the  countries  explored,  to  which  certainly  no  other  nation, 
except  Spain,  could  advance  so  strong  a  claim  on  the  ground  of  discovery  or 
of  contiguity." 

The  third  element  in  the  United  States  title  to  the  Oregon  region  was 
furnished  in  181 1  by  a  company  whose  operations  were  directed  by  John  Jacob 
Astor,  of  New  York.  Where  the  city  of  Astoria,  in  Oregon,  now  stands,  the 


Our    Title  to  Oregon. 


company  built  sheds  and  a  large  factory.  They  also  constructed  and  launched 
a.  small  vessel,  and  laid  out  and  planted  a  garden.  We  need  not  relate  the 
particulars  of  the  events  of  the  next  few  years  connected  with  the  history 
of  Astoria ;  how,  during  our  second  war  with  England,  the  place  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  and  how,  after  the  war,  because  of  a  provision  in  the 
treaty  of  Ghent,  it  was  restored  to  us.  Our  purpose  is  accomplished  when  we 
state,  on  evidence  that  was  finally  admitted  by  all  parties,  that  the  Astor  settle- 
ment was  the  first  in  all  the  Oregon  region.  And  this,  as  against  Great  Britain, 
completed  and  made  perfect  the  United  States  title  to  the  region  on  the 
principle  laid  down  by  Jefferson,  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Melish,  "that  when  a 
civilized  nation  takes  possession  of  the  mouth  of  a  river  in  a  new  country,  that 
possession  is  considered  as  including  all  its  waters." 

In  the  meantime,  however,  Great  Britain  began  to  lay  claim  to  the  Oregon 
territory  on  the  ground  of  exploration  and  alleged  prior  settlement ;  but  no 
negotiations  were  entered  into  with  any  power  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  region 
before  the  year  1818.  In  that  year  it  was  agreed  between  our  government  and 
Great  Britain  that  all  the  territory  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  claimed  by 
the  United  States  or  Great  Britain,  "should  be  free  and  open  to  the  vessels, 
citizens,  and  subjects  of  both  for  the  space  of  ten  years."  It  was  at  no  time 
"asserted  by  the  American  government  that  the  United  States  had  a  perfect 
right  to  that  region ;  it  was  insisted,  however,  that  their  claim  was  at  least 
good  as  against  Great  Britain." 

We  now  come  to  the  final  element  in  the  United  States  title  to  the  Oregon 
region.  We  have  shown  what  was  Spain's  claim  to  the  country  as  far  north 
as  the  fifty-sixth  degree  of  latitude.  That  claim,  certainly  to  the  largest 
portion  of  the  territory,  was  indisputable  as  respects  discovery  and  exploration  ; 
but  as  Spain  had  failed  to  make  any  settlement,  or  any  that  proved  permanent, 
there  was  "a  flaw  in  the  title,"  as  the  lawyers  say.  The  claim,  however,  was 
certainly  valid  as  against  that  of  Great  Britain,  and  was,  as  we  have  shown, 
superior  to  it.  In  1819,  a  treaty,  commonly  called  the  Florida  Treaty,  was  made 
between  Spain  and  the  United  States,  by  which  it  was  agreed  that  the  southern 
boundary  line  of  the  United  States,  on  the  west  to  the  Pacific,  should  be  the 
forty-second  parallel  of  latitude ;  the  king  of  Spain  "  ceding  to  the  United 
States  all  his  rights,  claims,  and  pretensions  to  any  territory  north  of  said  line." 
It  is  worth  observing  just  here  that  the  Melish  map  referred  to  in  the  treaty, 
and  accepted  by  both  governments  as  correct  and  for  their  guidance,  gives  the 
Rocky  Mountains  as  the  western  limits  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  the  region 
beyond  to  the  Pacific  being  designated  as  the  Unexplored  Region.  This  is 
another  evidence  that  the  United  States  did  not  claim  the  region  as  a  part  of  the 
Purchase.  The  cession  made  by  Spain,  it  is  obvious,  completed  the  United 
States  title  to  the  Oregon  region.  That  title,  as  we  have  now  shown,  rests  (i) 
upon  the  discoveries  and  explorations  made  by  Captain  Gray;  (2)  the  explora- 
tions conducted  by  Lewis  and  Clarke  ;  (3)  the  formation  of  the  Astor  establish- 
ment ;  and  (4)  the  title  devised  from  Spain. 

The  mere  recital  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  as  we  have  here  fairly  and  faith- 
fully presented  them,  we  think  ought  to  be  sufficient  to  lead  every  person  who 
takes  the  trouble  to  examine  them,  to  the  conclusion  reached  in  this  paper. 
But,  to  make  certainty  doubly  sure,  we  submit  the  following  testimony. 

The  controversy  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  respecting  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Oregon  region  covered  a  period  of  about  thirty  years.  The 
prominent  negotiators  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  were  (first)  Richard 


8  Our   Title  to  Oregon. 


Rush,  Envoy  Extraordinary  to  Great  Britain  ;  (second)  Albert  Gallatin,  also 
Envoy  Extraordinary;  and  (third)  James  Buchanan,  Secretary  of  State  during 
Folk's  administration.  By  an  examination  of  the  official  correspondence  of 
these  gentlemen,  and  the  official  reports  of  their  many  conferences,  we  will  be 
best  able  to  determine  on  what  grounds  our  government  laid  claim  to  the  region 
in  dispute,  for  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  we  held  one  view,  one  set  of  convic- 
tions, and  at  the  same  time  instructed  our  representatives  to  urge  another.  It 
is  safe  to  say  that  we  on  every  occasion  made  the  best  claim  possible  founded 
on  the  best  reasons. 

On  the  22d  of  July,  1823,  John  Quincy  Adams,  Sec.  of  State,  wrote  to  Mr. 
Rush:  "The  right  of  the  United  States  to  the  Columbia  River  and  to  the 
interior  territory  washed  by  its  waters,  rests  (i)  upon  its  discovery  from  the 
sea,  and  nomination  by  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  ;  (2)  upon  its  exploration 
to  the  sea  by  Lewis  and  Clarke  ;  (3)  upon  the  settlement  of  Astoria,  made  under 
the  protection  of  the  United  States ;  and  (4)  upon  the  subsequent  acquisition 
of  all  the  rights  of  Spain."  In  the  letter  to  Mr.  Rush,  from  which  we  take  the 
foregoing  extract,  Mr.  Adams  makes  not  the  slightest  allusion  to  the  Louisiana 
Purchase.  On  the  I2th  of  August,  1824,  in  a  long  communication  covering 
many  pages,  Mr.  Rush  replies  to  Mr.  Adarns  with  great  clearness,  giving  an 
account  of  the  discussions  which  he  had  carried  on  with  the  representatives  of 
the  British  government,  but  not  the  first  intimation,  from  beginning  to  end,  is 
made  concerning  any  claim  by  reason  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  We  next' 
come  to  the  correspondence  between  Mr.  Clay,  Secretary  of  State,  and  Mr. 
Gallatin.  This  commenced  in  the  summer  of  1826.  Mr.  Clay  says  not  the  first 
word  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  ;  and  Mr.  Gallatin,  in  his  able  and  exhaustive 
discussion  of  the  subject,  as  manifested  in  his  letters,  and  in  his  celebrated 
pamphlet  of  seventy-live  pages,  published  in  1846,  and  more  recently  repub- 
lished  in  the  third  volume  of  his  "Memoir  and  Writings,"  edited  by  Hen ry 
Adams,  makes  but  the  briefest  allusion  to  the  Louisiana  Purchase  ;  and  even 
this  allusion  merely  connects  the  region  in  dispute  with  the  Purchase  as  an 
inference  or  "contiguity,"  not  as  an  original  and  actual  part  of  it,  the  exact 
language  used  by  Mr.  Gallatin  being  as  follows  :  "  This  utter  disregard  of  the 
rights  of  discovery,  particularly  of  that  of  the  mouth,  sources,  and  course  of  a 
river,  of  the  principle  of  contiguity,  and  of  every  other  consideration  whatever, 
cannot  be  admitted  by  the  United  States."  (Adams s  Memoir,  etc.,  vol.  III.,  p. 
493.)  The  whole  bent  of  Mr.  Gallatin's  argument  is  to  show  that  our  title  to 
Oregon  came  to  us  through  discoveries,  exploration,  and  occupation. 

In  addition  to  all  this  we  have  read  with  care  Mr.  Cush ing's  report  made  to 
Congress  in  January,  1839,  numerous  pamphlets,  presidents'  messages,  reports 
of  debates  in  Congress,  an  able  article  in  the  North  American  Review,  as  well 
as  the  English  books  by  Thomas  Falconer,  Tavers  Twiss,  and  John  Dunn— all 
reviewing  and  discussing  the  Oregon  Question;  but  nowhere  have  we  seen 
any  attempt  whatever  to  prove  that  any  part  of  the  region  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  ever  belonged  to  France,  or  that  France  ever  made  any  pretense  of 
conveying  it  to  the  United  States.  It  was  no  part  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 
Our  title  to  the  Oregon  region,  as  before  stated,  rests  (i)  upon  the  discoveries 
and  explorations  made  by  Gray,  (2)  the  explorations  conducted  by  Lewis  and 
Clarke,  (3)  the  formation  of  the  Astor  settlement,  and  (4)  the  acquisition  of  all 
the  rights  of  Spain. 


